The Call of the Wild It’s no surprise that the global pandemic has changed our habits and behaviors. International travel restrictions and the slow return to large gatherings in public spaces, compounded with a need to escape after months of confinement, have inevitably led people to pursue alternative forms of leisure and recreation. For many, that outlet has been a call back to the wild. The 2021 Outdoor Participation Trends Report reveals that last year, 53% of Americans ages 6 and over participated in outdoor recreation at least once, the highest participation rate on record. Remarkably, that’s more than 7.1 […]
Migration Generation – who’s leaving cities and why
A recent Harris Poll of 2,050 Americans found almost a third are reevaluating their lifestyles and considering a move to a less densely populated area as a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak. More than two-thirds (39%) of urban residents have said that COVID-19 has prompted them to consider leaving for a less-crowded locale, with 18- to 34-year-old Americans the most likely to consider moving. With many expected to continue remote work schedule post-pandemic, suburban and rural areas with their lower cost of living and improved quality of life are considering ways to compete for these Gen Y and Zers and […]
The Complexity of Sustainable Boat Building
As every sector looks to incorporate sustainable best-practices, so too, does the boat building industry. Professor Fahmi Bellalouna at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences sums it up in an article (Innovation Origins), “The interest of customers in environmentally friendly and sustainable products has also reached the boat market. Sailing is per se an environmentally friendly and sustainable form of mobility that only uses wind and thermal as energy sources. As a result, many customers now pay attention to the composition of materials and the manufacturing processes of sailboats.” As custom yacht designers, we see the complexity of this issue […]
Yachts & Yachting in the World of Social Distancing
An interview with Bob Stephens & Paul Waring reveals the effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their custom yacht design business and the world of custom yachts that they inhabit. We talked to them from a comfortably safe distance – a time zone away. Here is what they said: Let’s start with location: Your business is headquartered in Belfast, ME. While not a virus hotspot like New York or Chicago, your state still has restrictions. What are they, and how have they affected your day-to-day operations? Bob: Maine has been fortunate that the number of cases is lower than […]
Going Above and Below
When considering a design in the floating architecture space we have the enviable position of working from a place of possibility. Not limited by terra firma, structures can go up, down and then out in a way that is not possible in traditional construction. A design that illustrates this paradigm so well was unveiled recently at a symposium titled “Urban Tactics for Flooding: From Risks to Opportunities” presented by Griffiths University’s Cities Research Institute. Sea Manta, described by the GriffithNews as a “proposed 60m long recreational and ecological structure” is an ingenious design. An aquarium, swimming pool […]